Quote:
Originally Posted by jambo
Hi I have toyed with the idea of mounting mine up front but the safety angle kinda put me of. Where do you sore yours as I would be interested> 
J |
Quite simple really.. I made a special foam cut out pad that contours the motor, from flat fenders for the power head, which is awkward as being a four stroke it must lie tiller down,and a smaller one for the prop & skeg. I contoured it so that the weight is spread over the floorpan and the cover. It might mean the decals and finish get rubbed from the cover over time, but vanity is not a priority here. The head is sealed up in canvas bagging and the whole lot is strapped to the deck by mildly tensioned ratchet webbing, onto u -bolts on the floor. The tension of the webs is important, it shouldn't be too tight at the power head, but not too loose either. The worst situation with this rig is taking a lot of water in board, but for the cruising I do its fine, and I've taken force six breakers over the side so far, without any problems, the weight of any water goes aft quickly and you would have to be very unfortunate to take on enough to swamp the whole deck .. not saying its impossible, but I dont go out in that kind of stuff very often. Also my Valiant has large diameter tubes which give excellent buoyancy for a craft of its size. Also .. the weight of the aux up front gives excellent balance, in most conditions, and I have been very surprised at how well this rig performs with a shallower V hull than most of my others which have been deeper, the last of which was an 8.5m hull ..so the weight advantage is a big plus
As with everything though its a trade off of one benefit against another, but so far .. this combo has worked for me. I'd be happier with a support that gets the head off the deck by 6 inches or so though,.. that would be perfect
Breawatch
